Guild Wars 2

I was wondering why skill points continue to accumulate while trait points max out at level 80. Is this a way to limit your characters? You can’t be a master of all traits, yet you run out of things to use your skill points on. I haven’t found a post on this yet so just wondering why trait points don’t keep accumulating as you level past 80?

You can get materials needed for Mystic Forge recipes using skill points. Trait points don’t accumulate because build balancing.

Gaining trait points is a form of vertical progression. When a level 20 character has 5 more trait points than a level 15 character, there are multiple ways to spend those extra points, but no matter how it does so, it is strictly stronger than if it did not have or spend those 5 points. Gaining skill points is primarily a form of horizontal progression. Spending 30 skill points will teach my mesmer mass invisibility, but in order to use it I have to unequip time warp, and that may leave me less powerful overall.

Increasing vertical progression creates a grind where everyone rushes to be as powerful as possible so as to not be at a disadvantage. Increasing horizontal progression gives people something to aim for without leaving them at a significant disadvantage until they reach it.

Ultimately, gaining trait points is more similar to unlocking skill slots than to gaining skill points, and you’ll note that skill slots max out at level 30.